The Palestinian Authority is one step away from approaching
international organizations unilaterally, should Israel fail to
respond positively to a letter sent by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Ma´an news agency
reported on Sunday.

Speaking with Ma´an, PA Foreign Affairs Minister Riad al-Malki said
that the Palestinians will seek consultation from other Arab nations
before deciding the next step towards achieving an independent
Palestinian state.

Malki said that the PA "will determine the steps that we will take
according to the choices available to us" after receiving Israel´s
response to the Palestinian letter, which outlined the Palestinian
position on resuming direct peace talks with Israel.

"When we study all the options we will head to our Arab brothers for
consultation, and after this is done we will begin to move outside,"
he said.

The minister also announced that Abbas is scheduled to visit Tunisia
and Libya, after the two North African nations invited him at the
recent Arab summit in Iraq.

On Saturday, an Abbas spokesperson said that the PA was ready to
restart negotiations with Israel if Jerusalem responds positively to
a list of Palestinians demands outlined in a letter by Abbas and
relayed to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Otherwise, the
PA will resume efforts to unilaterally achieve UN recognition of
Palestinian state, and move to isolate Israeli "occupation" policies
by exposing their real effects on Palestinians living in the West
Bank, the spokesperson warned.

“The letter demanded a full cessation of settlement activities in the
West Bank and Jerusalem, and Israeli recognition of the 1967
borders,” the spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, told The Jerusalem Post.
He was speaking to reporters in Ramallah following a meeting between
Abbas and David Hale, the US envoy to the Middle East.

Abu Rudaineh said that Abbas briefed the US emissary on the content
of the letter, which was delivered to Netanyahu last week by Chief
PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Majed Faraj, head of the Palestinian
General Intelligence Service in the West Bank. It warned of the
pending collapse of the two-state solution.

“If we don’t receive a positive answer, we will resume our efforts to
achieve UN recognition of a Palestinian state. We will also pursue
our efforts to isolate the policies of the occupation and expose
Israel’s ambitions in our lands, water and holy sites.”